The lead researcher of a widely circulated survey on EU media influence has told Euractiv that the US PR firm that commissioned the study misinterpreted some of its findings.
The comments raise questions about the integrity of the EU Media Survey, published by Burson earlier this week, which guides advertising and subscription decisions in the Brussels media landscape.
The annual survey assesses the influence of different media outlets within EU institutions, including the European Parliament, with members of those institutions among those surveyed. In the 2025 edition, Politico retained its ranking as the most influential publication, ahead of the Financial Times and Reuters; Euractiv, in fifth place, was the only European publication in the top five.
Now the pollster who led the report has criticized the way some of its findings were interpreted by Berson. “I don’t think it necessarily reflects the broader views of MEPs,” Chris Hopkins of the British research firm Savanta told Euractiv.
Berson's report makes sweeping claims about the media's influence on MEPs. One of its “key findings” is that “an overwhelming majority – 86% of MEPs – consider Politico to be 'very' or 'fairly' influential.”
The PR company, a subsidiary of British advertising group WPP, also said that “76% of MEPs prefer print media (newspapers or magazines) to access information.”
However, these findings are based on a sample of just 175 people, including 21 MEPs, according to Savanta's methodology published in the report. The sample of MEPs surveyed represents just under 3% of the 720 members of parliament.
Hopkins acknowledged that his team had “struggled” to get more responses from politicians, and that the survey needed to come with “methodological health warnings given the small subsample of MEPs we’re getting.” A similar survey Sawanta is conducting in the UK uses a sample of 100 of the 650 MPs.
Andrew Cecil, head of Burson's Brussels office, declined to comment.
The sample size is “fair enough”
While Berson's presentation said Sawant “surveyed” people between November 14 and April 3, Hopkins said the survey was conducted primarily through an online questionnaire that was sent out “just before Christmas.”
In addition to the 21 MEPs, the sample of 175 included 66 institutional employees (out of a total of 79,000) and 88 “opinion formers” – a category that includes journalists, business leaders, lobbyists and representatives of other non-governmental groups.
Despite his concerns about Berson's interpretation of the results, Hopkins, who lives in the UK and topped the survey for the first time this year, generally defended the work and its modest sample size.
“I think in terms of getting input and how we do it, I think 175 is pretty fair,” he said, referring to the sample. “I'm not sure if there's more. If there was, we'd be interested in partnering with any other organization to do more of it.”
The report and its methodology also do not include information on the nationality, political affiliation, profession or gender of respondents, and do not include a margin of error.
Gregg Swingen, senior media and communications adviser at Burson competitor Rud Pedersen in Brussels, described the survey as “extraordinary fun given the sample size from which the conclusions were drawn.”
The heads and executives of leading Brussels news outlets were quick to take Berson's report at face value, with Politico, MLex and EUObserver among those welcoming the findings on LinkedIn.
(ohm/mk)
Source: Source
